Lety and Dobříš Academic Trip

Friday, April 29 8am – 3:30pm

Join us for a trip to visit Lety, the site of former concentration camp where hundreds of Czech gypsies were murdered during the Second World War. Roughly 90% of the Czech Roma population was wiped out war, many of the Roma people now living in the Czech Republic are of Slovakian decent.

The killing ground in the small town of Lety, which was also a labor camp, became home to a pig farm hosting more than 15,000 pigs. For years, there has been an outcry against the insensitivity of the pig farm’s location. 

 “Our people lay buried there, of course we want it closed,” says Cenek Ruzicka, the son of a Lety survivor and an activist for gypsy rights. “This is our culture, and they are taking it from us. We won’t let them, we are proud.”

The Czech government has signed a deal to purchase the land in November of 2017.

The trip will be concluded by a trip to the Dobříš chateaux and its beautiful French gardens.